


Make a Shadow

by Cherith



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, POV Second Person, Sacrifice, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 21:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5063971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherith/pseuds/Cherith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max has no good choices left to make. Somehow, Max has to surrender to what Chloe really means to her and what she's willing to do as a result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make a Shadow

Run away, run away, let's leave tomorrow  
When city floods, we'll build our castle  
Through it all, I want to be a kid again  
Through it all, don't tell me this is home

 

I'm only only in the only only in the in the shadows  
My heart is fire, my heart is young  
I'm only only in the only only in the in the shadows

We gotta wait inside the shadow, don't get old, don't get old  
I'm only only in the only only in the in the shadows  
My heart is fire, my heart is young  
I'm only only in the only only in the in the shadows  
~ **Meg Myers** \- Make a Shadow~

You're sacrificing a town for her.

There's a town down below the cliff where the two of you stand. It's your town, the place where you grew up, a place you left only to come back years later, it's the place where you met her and now… it's about to be nothing. You feel like maybe that should bother you more.

A nagging, tapping feeling at the base of your skull reminds you that there are people and places and homes below you, people and places and homes that you love- loved. But none of those people are Chloe. None of them have blue hair and a wild spark in their eyes, there's no one else you would sacrifice a town for, sacrifice your life for, or a multitude of lives, worlds, universes.

That's what you've done, haven't you? If you believe the story so far, the seed of the idea that Warren planted in your head before you left him to die all those lifetimes ago, then each time -- each _time --_ has died to serve a single purpose. To save Chloe, to keep her, to give her life again and again and again. And if this life you give her must come at some price, at the cost of a town, so be it.

The wind from the tornado barely twists your hair as you concentrate on the feeling of her arm pressing lightly against yours. The two of you stand apart from Arcadia Bay, but haven't you always?

You're sacrificing a town for her for a moment, it feels like a dream. A better one, a good one than any you've had for a long time. Only it's not a dream. It's reality shifting to accommodate for the place you've made in the world. Now it's the place where Chloe belongs, where you both belong. Reality moves and the storm leaves you alone, in more ways than one. In every way that matters now. It's not coming for you or for Chloe and you think, _maybe Warren was wrong._

Maybe it was never coming for you. Or from you.

Maybe it was always coming.

Maybe the storm was inevitable.

Just like you and Chloe.

You know you should look away eventually. But if it was always inevitable, even if the storm was always coming for Arcadia Bay, you feel like you have to watch it. You have to see it through to the end.

The wind whips in the distance, gathering up the edges of the shoreline and moving inland, the town clearly in its path. There's a beauty to it, as if it's not the storm moving but the town. Arcadia Bay is packing up and heading out to shore, waving down the beast of a storm waiting for it just beyond the beach. The place that was once Arcadia Bay has given up Chloe to you, without her, it would cease to be. Just as were the decision reversed, so also would you.

On the cliff everything is quiet and dry, and only from here can you stand witness to the chaos. You're not a part of it, and perhaps you never were. Already the nagging is fading, the tapping is nothing but a stray breeze making its way towards town. The people and places of Arcadia Bay are fading from your memory, like a dozen other universes that didn't belong here after all.

As Arcadia Bay begins its escape to the sea, to the storm, you realize it's easier now to know which place is the right place, which future is the right future. Easier than it's ever been. You've made the decisions so many times now you have no other nature than this one. This is the only you. You belong wherever Chloe is.

She's beside you now. Watching and silent, and very much alive. Her hand finds yours amid the quiet chaos. You want to turn to her, to watch her or hold her but neither of you seems capable of looking away. A choice has been made and all that's left now is to witness it.

**Author's Note:**

> Like many people, I'm sure, I haven't been able to get the end of this game out of my head. I know that second person pov isn't for most people, but I felt like this style is a good complement to the way the story in Life is Strange is told.


End file.
